The Will to Survive Does Not Discriminate: Raj Naiksatam’s The Cloudburst
How accurate is your book about the weather conditions in that region of India? Are there really storms of that ferocity?
Weather conditions mentioned in the book are real. The 2005 Maharashtra floods, refers to the flooding of many parts of the Indian state of Maharashtra including large areas of the metropolis Mumbai, the floods were caused by the eighth heaviest-ever recorded 24-hour rainfall figure of 37.17 inches, which lashed the metropolis on 26 July 2005.It intermittently continued for the next day, 25.35 inches was received within the 12-hour period between 8 am and 8 pm. About one thousand people lost their life in this storm.
The Environment Ministry of the Government of India was informed in the early 1990s that sanctioning the Bandra -Kurla complex(a commercial complex where the story takes place) was leading to disaster. Mangrove ecosystems which exist along the Mithi River and Mahim Creek were destroyed and replaced with construction. Hundreds of acres of swamps in Mahim creek have been reclaimed and put to use for construction by builders. These ecosystems serve as a buffer between land and sea. It is estimated that Mumbai has lost about 40% of its mangroves between 1995 and 2005. The Bandra - Kurla complex in particular was created by replacing such swamps.
Ferocity of these storms is unbelievable, over the years it happened in state of Gujrat, Madhya Pradesh, in south Indian states of Tamil Nadu, Andra Pradesh and more recently in Kerala.
Is Ganpu’s family’s loss an example of a real-life type of injustice? What can we do about that?
One of the real-life type of injustice, yes. They came just before dawn on June 3, 1997, police officers forcibly entered the homes of several women in a fishing village in western India, dragging them into waiting police vans and beating them with sticks. The only “crime” committed by these women was to lead a peaceful protest against the environmental impact of a massive new natural-gas plant being built. Ganpu’s family and five hundred others lost everything.
If there is a way we can control corporate greed and/or help end the massive corruption on every level of the government.
How does your cinematic/animation training influence the story? How did you structure the action scenes?
Yes, cinematic/animation training has influenced in big way, but took the liberty to bend a few rules, one rule says to not work with too many characters in a story.I did just that, Mumbai is a city with a lot of people and lot more pouring into the city everyday. Dealing with too many characters on a daily basis is a way of life in Mumbai, it is a in your face glaring reality of this city.
As for how I structure the action scenes, I visualize them in my heard first, and then draw them out when they get more complicated.
Who was your favorite character to write, and why?
All characters are my favorite, and I had so much fun working with each one of them, at a certain point in my writing I realized that each character was telling me their own story and I was just taking notes. I like Anu, the teacher who understood how helpless she was and tried putting a team together to bring the best in everyone. I wrote all these characters in 2007-8, few years ago one of the readers compared Ganpu to President Mr Obama, the reader said both are, the still water runs deep kind, Mr. Obama is my favorite president, Ganpu became my favorite character.
Why did you decide to make this realistic rather than supernatural fiction?
I think today’s reality is so much more engaging, scary and overwhelmingly powerful. One could be visiting any city in the world for work or pleasure and could get caught in nature’s wrath or one could be sitting at home minding their business and a government or corporation could barge into the house and take away everything.
Raj Naiksatam’s The Cloudburst is available here from Story Vision Magic Publishers.